Databases are widely used for data storage and access in computing applications. Databases may include one or more tables that include or reference data that can be read, modified, or deleted using queries. Databases may be used for storing and/or accessing personal information or other sensitive information. Secure storage and access of database data may be provided by encrypting and/or storing data in an encrypted form to prevent unauthorized access. In some cases, data sharing may be desirable to let other parties perform queries against a set of data.
In database systems, views are commonly used as security mechanisms by which an account may restrict access to specific fields of tables to hide information. A view permits the result of a query to be accessed as if it were a table. Any query expression that returns a valid result may be utilized to create a view, including selecting columns in a table, selecting a specific range of data in table columns, and joining data from two or more tables. Views may be utilized to simplify queries and/or hide data.